Earth-Friendly Raised Garden Beds by Lauren Heimburg

Eco-friendly Raised Garden Beds are the hot ticket item for this year's spring planting season. Raised garden beds and planters are multi-functional and can be used for planting flower beds, vegetable gardens or shrubbery, landscape edging, playground borders and splinter-free sandboxes for kids.

These modular raised garden beds can be stacked on top of each other, to adjust the height as your garden blooms. Typically, raised beds are sold in 6" high increments, and can be purchased in heights of 6", 12", and 24". The width of raised beds should be limited to 2' or 4' widths, so they will be easy to maintain, without having to climb into beds.

The best elevated garden beds look like real wood grain but are made from earth-friendly recycled, composite plastic timbers. They are durable and long lasting, non-toxic (like arsenic-containing, pressure treated lumber), termite-free, and do not rot, warp, splinter or lose their wood grain finish like traditional timber.

There are a multitude of benefits to raised planters or raised garden beds including:

· Provides a beautiful frame for your garden

· Longer lengths may be used as landscape edging or playground borders

· Can be used as a, or sandboxes

· Improves drainage

· Improves poor soil conditions by providing a deeper topsoil layer

· Adjusts in height, size & shape to accommodate plant growth

· Lawn mower and edger proof plant and flower beds

· Easy to install

When purchasing elevated or raised beds and planters, make sure they are made from eco-friendly recycled materials and include anchor joints for connecting plastic timbers. You may also need finishing sleeves for landscape edging kits.

After constructing your raised garden bed, and securing it into place, place a liner made from gardening plastic or weed mat in the bottom of bed; this greatly reduces the growth of weeds.

Next fill the liner 1/3 full with nutrient-rich compost (from your compost bin, we'll talk about this later) then fill the rest with potting soil (store-bought or from another area of your landscape) and some dry organic fertilizer. Finally, you are ready to create your garden by sowing seeds or planting flowers, vegetable and plants starts.

Lastly, water your raised bed and don't forget to water these beds frequently since there are above ground, and do not retain water as well.

If you are using the raised garden bed for a sandbox, it is best to place a gardening plastic liner in the bottom before filling with sand. Some raised garden beds are sold as sandboxes and come with covers for protection from the elements and from animals who think it's a giant kitty litter box.

After you've created your very own eco-friendly, raised garden oasis, you can begin work on the composting and vermiculture.